FROM

Rev. D. Rebecca Dinovo
November 2008

While in seminary I discovered
Franciscanism and joined a Franciscan Third Order in the Church. As I read
about St. Francis of Assisi I was struck by his love and passion for
animals. Eventually my vegetarianism became a natural part of my spiritual
disciplines as a Franciscan, but again, it did not go much deeper than that
because I had never been exposed in any serious way to animal rights issues.
I felt that my love for animals was primarily sentimental and that such a
“feeling” was not something to take too seriously. In fact, I felt almost
ashamed of my “quirkiness” and my soft spot for animals.

In many ways, my conversion to animal welfare was simply a "return" to my
natural, early childhood inclinations. As a child I was aware of an innate
sense of love and compassion for animals. I recall as a child of 6 or 7
announcing to my dad, “When I grow up I am going to be a vegetarian!” I also
remember asking questions of adults like, “Why do we eat cows?” after
learning that hamburgers are made of cows. What always struck me as a child
was how loving, beautiful, and innocent all God’s creatures were. I had no
desire to see any animal harmed. Once on a boating trip my uncle caught a
fish and let it sit on the deck of the boat until it “suffocated” outside
the water. I cried and held my breath trying to “be” with the fish in his
misery. As he died, I felt we had done a terrible thing, but no one else
thought so.

Later in elementary school I was leafing through an issue of National
Geographic one afternoon and saw photographs portraying the slaughter of
rhinoceros by hunters in a remote part of Africa. The article warned that
extinction might occur if such "sport" continued. I shared the story with my
best friend and we promptly made signs and brought them to school which
read, “Save the Rhinos!” We carried our signs with us on our walks to and
from school and spent a week telling everyone we knew about the plight of
the rhinos in Africa. Unfortunately, we had little knowledge of what we
might do to make a difference and felt helpless in the face of this
violence.

And like most people, I have always loved my pets. I grew up with dogs,
hamsters, rabbits, and cats who I cared for deeply. They were a constant
comfort to me and I always felt we shared a bond of genuine love. I hated to
see them suffer and I prayed for them constantly.

But with time, the issue of animals and their welfare faded from my mind
completely. A significant event occurred at the age of 19, however, while I
was staying with a native family in a tiny village in northern Thailand. The
family had a few farm animals including a small black pig they kept in a
pen. The pig was friendly and curious and I began to play with him, pet him,
and took some photos of him with my camera. I felt I had made an instant
friend. That night however, as we sat down in the little hut to eat dinner,
I looked at the meal and saw pieces of meat with some familiar black hair in
it; I panicked and looked out the window toward the pig’s pen only to see
that it was empty. My heart pounded. I could not bring myself to eat it and
I nearly gagged. The realization of eating meat, something I had done
without thinking for so many years, had finally sunk in. I vowed never to
eat pork again.

In college I became a vegan and while I still did not know much about
animal rights, it was clear to me that eating a vegan diet was the only way
to ensure good health, plus, I had never liked the idea of eating animals. I
remained a vegan for many years and I spent a decade in this state, never
investigating the issue any deeper.

While in seminary I discovered Franciscanism and joined a Franciscan
Third Order in the Church. As I read about St. Francis of Assisi I was
struck by his love and passion for animals. Eventually my vegetarianism
became a natural part of my spiritual disciplines as a Franciscan, but
again, it did not go much deeper than that because I had never been exposed
in any serious way to animal rights issues. I felt that my love for animals
was primarily sentimental and that such a “feeling” was not something to
take too seriously. In fact, I felt almost ashamed of my “quirkiness” and my
soft spot for animals.

My mind was changed forever and dramatically, however, when my beloved
cat, Franc was trapped and killed just yards from our home by nuisance
wildlife control trappers. As I tried, in my state of deep grief, to
understand how something like this could happen without recourse in our
society, I was confronted with the cold, devastating facts about the laws
and treatment of animals in our country. The lack of protection and rights
for animals is simply staggering. I began looking into animal rights groups
and as I read through their educational materials, the true horror, along
with a sense of incredible responsibility, began to come over me. I felt as
though I had been ignorant to the reality of the violence perpetrated
against animals for so many years that I had simply developed a “blind spot"
for it.

I watched the video “Meet Your Meat” for the first time and cried for two
hours after watching it. Suddenly I was ready to take up what I saw as the
“secular cause” of animal rights.

It was not long until I discovered that animal welfare is not merely a
secular issue, but one that my own faith tradition and denomination uphold.
Christianity has deep theological roots and traditions of supporting animal
welfare. To say that my discovery created a worldview shift for me would be
an understatement. Suddenly things became clear and I realized that, without
a doubt, an aspect of my vocation as a priest in the Church was to mediate
God’s mercy and peace to all creatures, particularly the “least of these,”
the animals. Recently I have become outspoken on the issue and am actively
working for animal welfare; I believe it is an essential part of my ministry
and an important part of all Christians' God-given responsibility to care
for the earth. “Thy kingdom come” is a prayer for the peaceable kingdom of
God to reign, a kingdom where there is no more violence and killing…and
certainly no unnecessary suffering of any of God’s creatures. Thy Kingdom
come!

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